Embodiments of the present invention relate to communicating content from data sources (e.g., management system with databases) to different frontend devices, like portable devices (e.g., notebooks, portable digital assistants PDA, mobile/cell phones), and stationary devices (e.g., desktop computers).
There are many different devices on the market, with relatively large screens (desktop or laptop computer) or small screens (PDA, phone), with different input modules (e.g., keyboard, touch-screen), with different operating systems (e.g., Windows, Linux, or device specific systems), and so on. The devices have their own way for applications or data to appear to the users in a “native” fashion or environment. For example, devices have their own branding to present data on a screen, to receive input from the user, different technology to process and render data, and so on. The interaction between the human user and the device lets the users work, purchase goods, extract information, educate or entertain themselves, and so on. Such activities are more efficient the more the users operate the device in a familiar or “native” environment.
In the state of the art today, data that is sent to the frontend device needs to be processed before sending, and is processed specifically to each frontend device. In an alternative, an application can be implemented at least partly in the frontend device so that device-specific processing is performed there. Both approaches require effort, for example, to provide device specific rules, to train a community of developers for each device according to the rules, to implement one and the same application in variants for each device, and so on. Thus, the different frontend devices and technologies cause repeating effort for development.
If pre-processing follows rules that had been originally designed for other devices, presentation and interaction may be distorted. For example, data presentation may appear strange and the user may stop looking at the data, or even worse, may choose to work, purchase and so on elsewhere.
There is an ongoing need for technology that pre-processes data independent from the devices so that the devices can present data and let the user interact with them as much as possible in a native fashion, consistently across platforms (devices and technologies).